Hop rhizomes

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Permalink Reply by Hinny Skippy on July 1, 2008 at 9:35am

http://www.crannogales.com/HopsManual.pdf


This is an interesting read and good info on growing hops. I'm going to germinate my seeds today. The seeds came from Green Bullet flowers i have. My Nelson Sauvin have seeds in as do my Styrians. I haven't collected the seeds from the last two-a lot come out in the boil but 90mins boil is probably not what a seed likes before being planted. :-(

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Permalink Reply by James P on July 1, 2008 at 10:54am

Don't underestimate the growing power of hops, they grow very quickly!

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Permalink Reply by Doug on July 1, 2008 at 11:54am

Hello Brewers,

The body responsible for processing and marketing hops in New Zealand is called New Zealand Hops Limited and was created in 2005 through an amalgamation of New Zealand Hop Products Limited and The New Zealand Hop Marketing Board. New Zealand Hops Limited is a co-operatively owned limited company established after the governments producer board deregulation in 2003.

New Zealand Hops Limited can be described as the industries governing body due to its Governance by a grower elected board who appoint a Chief Executive to manage the off-farm interests of the industry.

New Zealand Hops Limited does not grow nor own any hop plants or material, certain hop varieties in New Zealand do carry plant variety rights however these are the property of the New Zealand Government not the New Zealand Hop Industry.

It should be realised that the guarded nature the industry has toward New Zealand varieties is based through generations of growers who have supported and funded the development of these varieties through grower research levies that are paid to maintain the New Zealand Hop Research Committee a joint Hop Industry, Government and Brewery group established in 1947 to create a breeding programme to combat a disease called Black Root Rot that all but wiped out the industry.

The subject of disease is still a major concern for the industry and it should be for brewers as well. This is not an issue to be made light of and any one who thinks that the threat isn’t real need only travel to Yakima in the United States to witness the devastation possible on hop crops by fungal disease.

New Zealand is and can remain hop disease free but only through strict boarder protocols, even the New Zealand Hop Industry is not able to import hop material under the current level 3 quarantine protocols. I would strongly urge anyone considering circumventing the importation regulations not to.

The hop industry is a competitive international market and New Zealand has as its point of difference our hop disease free environment and unique varieties. The New Zealand Grower wants to retain that market edge which could be easily lost through importing of disease or exporting of our plant material.

There exists for individuals means to obtain hop rhizomes from nurseries in New Zealand and any number of varieties grow wild in the hedge rows around Nelson and many other parts of the Mainland. I have an early aroma type growing in my front yard and although I can only guess what it is I know it has an alpha of 4 % and a wonderful aroma. I harvested and dried around 700 grams off it this year which is considered a good yield.

The New Zealand Hop Industry is not opposed to the responsible domestic cultivation of Hops and would ask that consideration be given for the future of the New Zealand Industry and the Growers who have worked and contributed so much over generations to establish New Zealand Hops Internationally.

Doug Donelan
Chief Executive Officer
New Zealand Hops Limited.

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Permalink Reply by nzbrewer on July 1, 2008 at 12:55pm

thanks for the input Doug

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Permalink Reply by Hinny Skippy on July 1, 2008 at 3:03pm

Doug
The seeds from my hops all come from NZ Hops. So i don't see how i'm going to do any damage to the hop growing industry in this country. I would like the opportunity to grow some hops and i find it a bit oppresive that named vars are virtually impossible to get.
Whats wrong with letting the microscopic amount of all grain home brewers who wish to grow a hop plant or two having a named var?
I have enough trouble getting hop pellets from overseas let alone trying to import any plant products-i wouldn't anyway. Which is why i tried through the correct channels in this country to obtain a couple of rhizones. To no avail.
So, as the hops supplied by NZ Hops have seeds in and i have bought them legitamately i see no reason why i cannot attempt to grow them?

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Permalink Reply by Doug on July 1, 2008 at 6:38pm

Hello Hinny Skippy,
I can see no reason why you shouldn't try to grow them either. Seed isn't optimum they grow best from cuttings, as a matter of fact they grow like weeds in and around Nelson however anything further north than Gisborne would probably be pushing it with most varieties.

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Permalink Reply by James P on July 1, 2008 at 3:18pm

Hi Doug

Thanks for the comments it always helps when we are provided with information from the source.

It is important to remember that NZ has a disease free hop market, and this is to be hailed as a great thing, something that none of us want to damage.

I would hope the NZHL would consider introducing other varieties to the market through their co-op of contracted growers, and provide NZ home brewers with an ability to utilise a NZ produced resource instead of having to source from overseas.

Cheers

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Permalink Reply by Doug on July 1, 2008 at 6:58pm

Hi James,
Thanks for your comments. We are continually looking at the commercial viabilty of varities and devote considerable funds and resources annually to research and growing trials. The reality is though that most varities unless bred through selection for our conditions and climate will not grow here and the few that do grow may not satisfy the brewer due to characteristic changes that can occur due to agronomics.
Regards,
Doug

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Permalink Reply by Steve Baker on July 1, 2008 at 4:29pm

Hi Doug

Its great to hear the industry perspective on this. For me I think the ideal scenario would be for NZHL and professional growers to realise that domestic growers are an untapped source of revenue.

In the USA there are many sources for the domestic grower to purchase rhizomes and I think there is a real opportunity for the same to happen in NZ.

I can imagine there would be arguments against such a venture - let me line up some straw men:

If homebrewers grew their own hops, they wouldn't buy ours.
Perhaps counter-intuitively I think demand for professionally grown hops would increase for a few reasons. Most domestic growers wouldn't have the spare time, expertise and equipment to grow and process enough hops for an entire year's brewing so no customers will be lost there. Additionally, the number of home brewers may increase as green thumbs become motivated to start brewing what they have grown. Finally, many domestic growers would still prefer pellets for their own brews rather than their own wort sponges cones.

If we sell our disease resistant rhizomes domestically then overseas growers will acquire them and take our competitive advantage
I'm not really qualified to know if this is a realistic scenario. I'd like to think that the real competitive advantage of NZ hops is a great tasting high quality product.

Also, the commercial risk of allowing domestic rhizomes sales needs to be balanced against the risk of not allowing sales. The risk here is that since there is an unsatisfied market, some idiot will do an import and risk our disease free status. (please note that this is not a veiled threat, I am not an idiot)

Anyway, back to waiting for my NZ Cascade seeds to germinate - no signs of life yet...

cheers

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Permalink Reply by Doug on July 1, 2008 at 8:03pm

Hello Steve,

Thank you as well for your comments and for putting forward your “straw men” scenarios it all makes for good open discussion. I think if the New Zealand amateur brewer were to investigate opportunities for the purchase of local hop rhizomes they would soon find they exists, albeit not through our office. Disease resistance for our varieties thankfully remains untested so no assumptions should be made on that front. It is commercial reality that drives our desire for our varieties not to end up in the gardens of competitive grower nations and although we have no real controls over this occurring we certainly aren’t about to encourage it. I do agree though that a real risk exists if somebody would take it upon themselves to illicitly introduce foreign material into our country, however we are not the only industry in New Zealand to appreciate that this risk exists and we strongly support our border protocols. All our varieties as well as selected imports are available to the New Zealand amateur brewer as pellets and in some instances leaf hop. We support all brewing activity across all levels both domestically and internationally as a grower owned commercial enterprise.
Good luck with the Cascades, they grow well in New Zealand and ironically we do sell them into the USA.

Regards,

Doug.

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Permalink Reply by Simon on July 1, 2008 at 10:36pm

Doug, it is good to hear directly from someone within the NZ hop industry on this topic. Thank you for taking the time to respond.

I am intrigued as to the possible sources you are suggesting. So far, this thread has established two commercial nurseries as legitimate sources for hop plants of two different varieties: smoothcone and aureus. Other than a couple of home brewers growing the offspring of a cascade we seem to have drawn a blank on anything else.

Obviously the main motivation for home brewing is getting involved in the raw processes involved in making beer. One of these processes that several of us have expressed an interest in by contributing to this thread is that of growing hops. It seems like an opportunity is being missed to connect these people with the two things they want the most: hop plants and information. It would be great to see a wider variety of hop plants being offered to NZ home brewers by NZ nurseries in collaboration with the NZ hop industry. It would also be good to see more information on home cultivation available through resources like NZ Hops Ltd, Hort Research etc. Information like signs of disease, pests, growing conditions, varieties suited to latitudes/locations etc. would be helpful.

Like you pointed out, there is a risk that someone will take it upon themselves to import foreign varieties illegally and with them foreign pests or disease. The motivation for doing so would be to extend the variety available to the home brewer because of the frustration of not having the variety easily available locally. I would think that this risk could be further minimised by having more home grown varieties available to the home brewer and having more information on which varieties have grown well or not in trials at the NZ research centres/farms in studies and in practice.

It is good to hear that you are not averse to people growing hops from seed. This may be a good way for us home brewers to achieve some of the desired variety, albeit in a very random (each seed being genetically different) and time consuming (to see which plants work best) way. Guess I’ll be digging those seeds out of the next batch of hops I get.

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Permalink Reply by Doug on July 2, 2008 at 10:32am

Hello Simon,

I think that many of the points you have raised with regards supply and information will continue to evolve as long as individuals such as yourself continue to look for it. All supply is created through demand. On the matter of growing from seed, plant cuttings will serve you better.

Regards,

Doug.

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